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Actor Sean Bean has just settled a question that goes back to the first season of Game of Thrones when his character Ned Star was beheaded…

There’s always been a question surrounding Ned Stark’s death in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season one and now actor Sean Bean has finally answered it.

For the unlucky viewers who never read the source books from A Song of Ice and Fire series to know what was coming on Game of Thrones it was shocking turn of events during the ninth episode of season one when Ned Stark — to that point the lead character on the show — was beheaded by King Joffrey.

During those final few seconds of Ned’s life just before Ilyn Payne swung his sword to lop off the Stark patriarch’s head, he was seen muttering something under his breath. Was Ned saying his final goodbyes to his family? Was he saying ‘Valar Morghulis’, the phrase that means ‘all men must die’? Was he revealing Jon Snow’s true parentage?

As it turns out none of those theories were true.

“Just saying a prayer,” Bean revealed in a new interview with the Huffington Post. “It appears that way, doesn’t it? I couldn’t be too specific, because I don’t know if religion [like that] was around in those days, whatever they were. I just thought, ‘What would you do if this were really gonna happen?’ You probably would pray. You probably would murmur some words and you’d keep it quiet. You’d keep it to yourself.

“It’s quite subtle in that many people wouldn’t pick it up. It was an interesting thing to do for me at that point. There’s not much you can do really, you’ve got your head on a block. That’s about the only thing you can do is murmur.”

Bean also added that there are no plans for him to return in any way for the final season of Game of Thrones that’s currently in production. Of course even if Bean was going to appear in some form or fashion there’s no chance he’d be able to reveal that information.

There were rumors that perhaps Bean would come back for some sort of final goodbye perhaps in a dream sequence with Jon Snow but at least for now the actor who played Ned Star is shutting that down.